Cape Town to Johannesburg pair named the busiest domestic route in Africa with nearly 3.5 million passengers

The air link between Cape Town International and Oliver R. Tambo Airport, both in South Africa, has emerged as the busiest domestic route on the continent with more than 3.4 million passengers.

Asia Pacific dominated the ranking of the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju International Airport-Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport (CJU-GMP) remaining the most popular route globally, with 13.3 million passengers traveling between the two airports.

This is according to the International Air Transport Association which has just released the latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics, providing comprehensive statistical data through to 2025.

Updated annually, World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) provides data related to demand, supply and operational performance.

World Air Transport Statistics also includes data collections on the global airline fleet, top routes, employment and financial performance (costs and revenues).

WATS incorporates data from the 1,315 airlines in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual Statistics collection, including more than 250 international airlines providing specific data contributions to WATS.

Insights from World Air Transport Statistics

Premium-Class Travel Shows Strong Growth

In 2025, the number of international premium-class passengers—business and first class—reached 109.7 million, an increase of up to 4.5 percent year-on-year.

This accounted for 5.5 percent of all international travelers.

Latin America saw the largest jump in premium-class passengers, rising 22.1 percent to 4.0 million. Europe remained the biggest market for premium travel, with 39.7 million passengers in 2025.

However, North America (10.4 percent) and the Middle East (9.5 percent) accounted for the highest shares of premium-class passengers as a proportion of total passenger numbers.

Asia Dominates Busiest Airport Pairs

Asia Pacific dominated the ranking of the world’s busiest airport pairs, with Jeju International Airport-Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport (CJU-GMP) remaining the most popular route globally, with 13.3 million passengers traveling between the two airports.

In the top 10, only one airport pair—Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport-Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport (JED-RUH)—was outside the Asia Pacific region. All of the top 10 busiest airport pairs were domestic connections.

An overview of the regions showed …

Cape Town International Airport-Johannesburg’s Oliver R. Tambo International Airport (CPT-JNB) was Africa’s busiest airport pair in 2025, with 3.4 million passengers.

Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport-Medellín’s José María Córdova International Airport (BOG-MDE) was the busiest airport pair in Latin America with 3.5 million passengers.

Barcelona’s Josep Tarradellas-El Prat Airport-Palma de Mallorca (BCN-PMI) remained the busiest airport pair in Europe with 2.1 million passengers.

Stockholm Arlanda Airport-Malmö Airport (ARN-MMX) was the airport pair with the fastest growth in Europe, with passenger numbers surging 85 percent to 271,031.

New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport-Los Angeles International Airport (JFK-LAX) was the busiest domestic airport pair in North America with 2.2 million passengers, and JFK-London Heathrow (JFK-LHR) was the busiest international airport pair from North America with 2.1 million passengers.

Top Passenger Markets by Country

The United States remained the world’s biggest passenger market, with 890.1 million passengers (both arriving and departing) recorded in 2025.

However, it recorded the slowest growth of the world’s top 10 markets, up just 1.6 percent year-on-year compared to 2024.

China was the second-biggest passenger market, with 776.1 million passengers in 2025, a growth of 4.8 percent compared to 2024.

Several Central Asian countries were among the world’s fastest-growing passenger markets.

Kazakhstan recorded a 40.0 percent year-on-year surge in 2025 to 18.1 million passengers while Uzbekistan welcomed 12.5 million passengers, up 16.9% on the previous year. Outside of Central Asia, Vietnam also recorded strong growth, with 80.9 million passengers in 2025, up 14.8% year-on-year.

Most Used Aircraft Types

Over the past six years, newer, more efficient widebody aircraft have taken to the skies.

The Boeing 787 (+40.8%) and Airbus A350 (+117.4%) recorded significantly more flights in 2025 than in 2019. By contrast, the Airbus A380 showed a considerable decline in usage, operating 24.4% fewer flights in 2025 than in 2019.

Narrowbody aircraft from Boeing and Airbus maintained their position as the most used aircraft in 2025. Boeing 737 aircraft (including all variants) operated 10.8 million flights in 2025, up 12.0% from 2024. This was followed by the Airbus A320 with 8.7 million flights and the Airbus A321 with 4.2 million flights.